However, the long-anticipated new product, called FAST Search for SharePoint, won't ship until the next version of Microsoft Office, code-named Office 14, does, said Jared Andersen, a senior product manager for enterprise search at Microsoft.

Released a year ago, Search Server Express 2008 has been downloaded 100,000 times, said Andersen. He declined to say when the next versions of those products would be available, or what features would be in them.

Microsoft doesn't expect to make FAST the underlying platform for its entire enterprise search software lineup until about 2013, or when the version of Office after this one ships. "That's certainly what we're working towards," Andersen said. He disagreed with the suggestion that this was too slow and leaving customers dissatisfied. "We've made tremendous progress. Customers are very interested in our roadmap, and we are being as transparent as we can," he said. Microsoft also plans to introduce another version, FAST Search for Internet Business. That will be targeted at companies running public Web sites, and will compete with products such as Google's Site Search. A beta of FAST Search for Internet Business will be available in the second half of this year.